Notes from Howard's Sabbatical from Working. The name comes from a 1998 lunch conversation. Someone asked if everything man knew was on the web. I answered "no" and off the top of my head said "Fidel Castro's favorite color". About every 6-12 months I've searched for this. It doesn't show up in the first 50 Google results (this blog is finally first for that search), AskJeeves says it's: red.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Still Looking for a TSA Head

TSA nominee Erroll Southers withdraws "President Obama's nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration withdrew from consideration on Wednesday, saying his nomination was 'obstructed by political ideology.'"

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) opposed him for fear he would allow TSA workers to unionize. Then there were discrepancies in his descriptions of a 20 year old incident where as an FBI employee he inappropriately accessed criminal records about his ex-wife's current boyfriend. He admitted the wrongdoing (and I think was censured at the time) but in telling Congress apparently got specifics wrong about whether he did the search or had someone else do it for him.

"Through a spokeswoman, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) expressed disappointment with Southers's decision. "The senator thought the combination of his law enforcement and aviation security skills uniquely qualified him to lead the TSA," a spokeswoman said."

"Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the panel's ranking Republican and the only lawmaker to ever publicly question Southers about the incident, said, "It is critically important that the White House act quickly to nominate someone with qualifications and reputation which are beyond reproach to lead this agency.""

I think our standards might be too high. I don't know anyone who is perfect. DeMint's objections were just crazy, you can disagree on the policy, but that doesn't disqualify him. Calling someone out on a minor mistake from 20 years ago that he takes responsibility for isn't right either.